Bicycle riders get NUMB on four-day charity jaunt

Nearly 200 bicyclists are pedaling over the hills and through the heat in southeast Nebraska and northeast Kansas this week.

The Nebraska United Methodist Bike Ride for Hunger – or NUMB – started Sunday in Beatrice and will end back in Beatrice on Wednesday.

Greg Bakewell of Omaha is an organizer of the ride and says they’re raising money for charities that fight hunger in Nebraska and around the world.

There are primarily four projects that will benefit: Heifer International, Bread for the World, a Nigerian hunger relief project, and for food banks in Lincoln and Omaha that serve all 93 of the state’s counties.

The cyclists rode from Beatrice to Auburn Sunday and from there to Sabetha, Kansas, on Monday. Today, they’ll go from Sabetha to Marysville, Kansas before heading back to Beatrice on Wednesday, for a four-day ride of about 275 miles.

While the Nebraska Methodist Conference sponsors the ride, Bakewell says cyclists come from far and wide to participate in the NUMB ride.

Riders are from all over Nebraska as well as from 12 other states and Canada.

The participants pay their own way to go on the ride, so Bakewell says every dollar raised will go to the designated charities.

The NUMB ride visits a different part of the state of Nebraska each year. Bakewell says the ride is being extended into Kansas for the first time this year.